The present invention relates to a skin sanitizing composition, particularly a teat dip or udder wash for the treatment of dairy cows.
Dairy cows are commonly effected by a disease known as mastitis which occurs by organisms entering the mammary glands through the teat canal. Mastitis renders the cows unsuitable for milking and a significant level of cows effected with mastitis in a herd can result in a significant economic loss to the farmer.
It is common practice in the dairy industry to apply a composition to the teats of the cow, usually immediately following milking, in order to prevent bacteria growth on the teat surface and penetration of the teat canal. While the present invention relates broadly to skin sanitizing compositions for any type of mammal, nevertheless, it is for use as a teat dip or udder wash that the composition of the present invention has particular application and for which purpose the following description is made. Since the teats of diary cows represent a very sensitive skin area, the particular teat dip or udder wash used must not only significantly reduce or kill the bacteria population on the skin surface but must further prevent significant bacteria growth for an extended period of time. It is even more important that the particular dip also be non-irritating to such a sensitive skin area as the teat surface.
A variety of products have been proposed over the years as teat dips for dairy cows among the most widely used of which are compositions containing iodine as the active microbiocidal ingredient. While iodine is an extremely efficient microbiocide, it can be irritating to the skin surface, particularly such a sensitive surface as a teat. This limits somewhat its usefulness since even if bacterial contamination of the skin surface is eliminated the possible irritation caused by the iodine effectively limits milking of the animals as well. Also, more recently concern has been expressed over the use of iodine as a teat dip because of possible contamination of the milk. Therefore, a need has existed for a non-irritating teat dip composition which avoids the use of iodine as the microbiocidal ingredient.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,056 for example, describes a teat dip composition comprising a combination of an anionic surfactant and an aminocarboxylic type chelating agent. U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,788 describes a teat dip biocide containing a nitroalkanol such as 2-bromo-2-nitropropane. U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,564 also describes a teat dip without the use of iodine which includes a water soluble lower alkanol microbiocide in an amount of 15 to 70% by weight together with a film forming polymer and an emollient.
In spite of the disclosure of iodine free teat dip products of the type generally disclosed above, a need has still existed for a skin sanitizing composition such as a teat dip or udder wash which contains a relatively low percentage of microbiocide or active ingredient to avoid a significant degree of skin irritation together with the ability to effectively or substantially reduce the bacteria population on a teat surface and maintain this low population for an extended period of time. These advantages have been achieved in the present invention wherein a skin sanitizing composition is obtained having a low degree of skin irritation but is extremely effective in reducing bacterial contamination of the skin surface.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a skin sanitizing composition which is relatively non-irritating yet substantially reduces the bacteria population when applied to a surface.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a skin sanitizing composition which is particularly useful as an udder wash or teat dip for application to dairy cows.